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After a long rest

I am a former swimmer, trying to get back into competitive swimming. I have been out of the pool 20 years and put on some extra pounds. This blog primarily documents my journey back to competitive swimming. And I should say having fun along the way!!!

I had to make a work trip to Biloxi today and could not make a direct flight work for my desired day trip so instead flew on an early flight to New Orleans and then drove to and from Biloxi. As a result, to do any kind of swim I had an even earlier than normal swim and was in the pool at 4:45 and had to finish at 5:30. I focused on speed power using the finis drag suit, and the power tower with 50lbs weights. I did rounds of 4 x 50s like last week. Unfortunately I was not as fast as last week but I was glad I did the workout.

Tomorrow I have several meetings in the morning and then my daughter and I drive to Austin for her TAGS meet.

I decided to continue my letter writing which went well at her last TAGS. I wrote her a short but heartfelt letter I will give her tomorrow telling her I am proud of her and the reasons why. I think I have said this before, but I have found writing very therapeutic and she liked my last letter so decided to give it another go.

Last week was a weird week in the pool just not having a very good feel in the water. I have felt like I am transitioning from training to taper(which I am), but I still have a long way to go to Budapest(3 weeks). I am a worrier when it comes to tapers and I donít remember feeling like this, this early; I donít know if its good or bad. I saw the psych sheets over the weekend and I had a few butterflies as I saw where I am ranked. Generally I am top 10 in all my events. There are some familiar names, but some names I have never seen before and I am guessing some made up times(or times from a former swimming career).

The next couple of weeks are going to be challenging due to my daughters end of season swim schedule(TAGS Wednesday through Sunday and NCSA Monday through Saturday). I have made arrangements in Austin to swim but no plans yet to swim in Indy but obviously I plan on swimming in Indy.

We had a meet at our pool Friday through Sunday and my daughter swam mainly off events, but somehow managed to get 3 more TAGS cuts(200 IM, 400 Free, 200 Free) and narrowly missed the 100 fly. The meet was using chase starts and she caught and overtook the poor girl in the heat before her in the fly, which I think threw her off and also I think she was out too quick. Despite this she dropped 11 seconds on her 100 fly, which was pretty awesome!

I was quite congested last night from being on deck all weekend and felt pretty tired when I woke up this morning. When you combine this with not sleeping that solidly I was not expecting much this morning but actually did pretty good on the fast work with fins, holding 200 pace and felt pretty decent as the set progressed. My backstroke felt good also which looking at the worlds psych sheets is probably my best shot at a medal in Budapest.

Warm up
400 free with snorkel
6x50 catchup on :55

Main Sets
4x(200 free on 2:40 smooth, 100 back on 1:40 smooth, 100 kick on 2mins smooth)
100 easy
10x50 working on high elbow catch on free
All with fins
100 at 200 pace, 50 easy back on 3mins
112.5 at 200 pace, 37.5 easy back on 3mins
125 at 200 pace, 25 easy back on 3mins
137.2 at 200 pace, 12.5 easy back on 3mins
150 at 200 pace on 3mins
50 back easy

I transitioned from lifting on Tuesday and Thursday to speed power in the pool this week. Tuesday the pool is setup scy so I was doing sprint 25s in rounds of 4 using parachutes, finis drag suit with pockets and power tower. Today the pool was setup LCM so I did 3 circuits of 4x50 using the drag suit as 12.5 fast, 25 easy, 12.5 fast, and then 4x50 using the parachute as 12.5 fast, 25 easy, 12.5 fast, and then switched to 4x50s in the lesson pool using the power tower loaded with 55lbs, followed by 4x50s as 25 afap, 25 easy in LCM. I was whooped at the end of both days workouts but was swimming fast.

The next couple of weeks are not ideal preparation for Budapest but would not change any of it. My daughter has TAGS in Austin and then we fly to Indianapolis for NCSA which is her first National level meet. Work is challenging at the same time but somehow we will make it all work. Luckily I have swimming friends in Austin and have arranged to train at Austin Swim Club between prelims and finals of my daughters meet. I still need to figure Indy out but I will find a way to swim. Indy week will be the real start of my taper so should be able to start to back off a little anyhow.

I traveled to Grand Junction with our senior group. Colorado Mesa was just awesome. Our accommodation, pool, and dinning were within a 1min walk from one another. The kids swam at 8am so I swam every morning at 5:30 and was averaging about 90 mins. I swam ok but really did not ever feel like adjusted to the altitude.

I would highly recommend the University of Colorado Mesa both for camp and as a great Division 2 school. I had a great opportunity to spend time talking with the aquatic director and a number of the life guards who swam on the team. All very impressive people.

I didn't not feel that great this morning despite sleeping great and feeling good before I swam. I misread Tom's workout which was in scy while I am training LCM and the 200s after the warmup set I did on very short intervals and paid the price as the workout went on. I was whooped and at the end struggled to hold a 1:20 base pace today.

after the kids workout today we went on a really cool hike to devils kitchen which was just stunning. The weather was awesome and our kids really enjoyed the hike. Thus far the kids training camp has gone great and I am having a lot of fun.

Yesterday I traveled with 30 15-18 year olds to Grand Junction for a 10 day training camp. To keep the costs down for the kids we flew to Denver and drove over the Rockies to Grand Junction. The flight and drive were uneventful and despite not being a big fan of driving a passenger van I had an absolute blast. The scenery across Colorado through Breckinridge, Vale and Aspen was spectacular. The kids were terrific and we laughed and joked the whole way.

Today was was my first altitude practice and I deliberately just stretched everything out and did not push too hard.

I had a great night of sleep last night and felt really good this morning other than tightness across my shoulders. I am so overdue a massage I am thinking this will be a gift to myself I will arrange for when I get back fro my Colorado.

I was particularly sore across my back and shoulders this morning. There was a life guard class going on at the pool early so I swam early. I used the warmup and pull set to stretch out and did feel much better as I swam further.

Yesterday Tom agreed to put pads in the pool this morning and we suited up for some fast swimming. I felt pretty good during warmup and swam great for where we are in the season; I was really pleased with where I am.

we then suited up and did 3 swims. Since I have not really gone all out since the surgery I have gradually been increasing both distance and intensity over the past few months. One area I have not really got to yet was dive Sprints. Today I choose to swim the 100 free, 50 free and 50 back. We swam about 200-300 between swims and these were on a pretty short rest interval for dive sprinting.

100 free 59.3. I was hoping to be under 1:01 so this was a really nice swim and until about 75 I felt awesome and then the elephant jumped on my back. I am not swimming this in Budapest due to the event lineup but I like swimming this LCM and I think it's a good gauge as to where I am right now.

50 free 27.0. This would have read so much better as 26.9 but it was another good swim and other than breathing way too much I felt awesome.

50 Back 31.8. I kicked out way to far on this 50 and came up too deep. Despite this it was a great swim and I was very happy.

This is the first time I have really gone for it and was a little apprehensive but I was very relieved that I was completely pain free in my elbow.

I am heading to Colorado on Tuesday for a 10 day altitude camp with my senior group and hope to swim and train in between there workouts. It's going to be a busy 10 days.

I slept hard last night and would have slept through my alarm if it were not for my awesome wife waking me up and giving me a coffee. I normally don't drink coffee before practice(I make up for it after practice) but this morning it was exactly what I needed.

I felt ok during warmup and about half of the main set today but was really tired from that point on. Despite being tired I had a good workout.

I was holding 1:08-1:09 on the 100s, using the IM as active recovery(but these still hurt) and was going 2:50s, and then choose to do back,free,back,free on the 50's by round. On the back I was :35-:36 and on the free I was :33s. My arms felt really tired towards the end of this set. I was not expecting Tom to throw 4 100s afap with fins at us and I must have pulled a funny face because he made a sarcastic comment about me not wanting to do these. The guy in the lane next to me was one of our faster young guys and he likes to race so I had to go for it on the free. I was :56 on the first and :55 on the last 100 which hurt so bad. On the back I was 1min and :59. I was hoping to go under 1:05 which I obviously did but I was very surprised how quick my back was because it felt horrible.

The past week has been extremely busy on both the work and personal front. I swam Tuesday through Thursday last week(Budapest week 8) and i am feeling pretty decent in the water. Friday through Sunday my daughter swum at the George Block Invite in San Antonio. The meet was at Northside ISD Aquatic center which is really an awesome facility. My parents are visiting from England and our original plan was for my wife and mother to accompany my daughter and I to the meet. Unfortunately my mother was sick and my wife stayed at home leaving my daughter and I to travel together to the meet. I managed to get a workout in at the Old George Block pool which was setup as 25m, but that was the extent of my swimming over the weekend. The couple of days off probably did me good anyhow.

My daughter had an incredible meet and got her Futures cut in the 200 back and missed her Juniors cut by just over a second. She is very young but her time qualified her to swim with our Senior team at the NCSA summer champs meet in Indianapolis the week after TAGS in early August. She has improved a lot as a 13 year old and we are hoping that the Indy meet will be a fun meet that gives her some great experience surrounded by older girls on the team she idolizes.

We got back from San Antonio at midnight on Sunday and I was very tired on Monday but hauled myself up to swim. Monday afternoon I had to head to San Francisco with work. My customer is in Redwood City and I was able swam with Stanford masters on Tuesday and Wednesday. As usual the group at Stanford were awesome and I had a lot of fun. Wednesday morning Hannah Boyd who was one of the few Stanford girls not at nationals this week trained with us. Hannah was really fast and was equally as nice. It's always great to see talented athletes who are also very grounded. Patrick(pwb) was in the bay area for work also and we managed to grab a quick breakfast together after practice which was fun.

I arrive home at midnight again on Wednesday but managed once again to haul myself up and out of bed for a morning swim. The swim this am was not that great but I was there and will feel better for the swim. I should be back on a normal schedule the rest of the week.

Next week I am heading to Grand Junction, Colorado with our senior group for a 10 day training camp at University of Colorado Mesa. My primary role is coach but I plan on training at altitude while I am there, but the schedule will be very busy. Unfortunately I also have to do some work while I am there but should be able to fit everything in. I am very lucky that my work role allows me some flexibility.

It's already been a crazy swimming summer and it's only going to get better as world's approaches.

I had a great fathers day and spent time with my wife, both my kids and my mum and dad; cant ask for much more than that. Despite a nap yesterday I was really tired this morning and probably well overdue a day off or at least a full blown recovery day. The way my schedule is working out I start to back off when I go to training camp with the kids on 4th July so I should start to feel ok I guess sometime after that. This morning I felt exhausted! Monday tends to be very aerobic centric and today was no exception.

Despite doing ok today I just never really got going. The transition set was surprisingly hard and the closest I came to feeling good today was on the 15x100s where I made all of them. The 300s at the end felt horrible and I just felt steam rolled today. Just no energy and very tired.

Yesterdays practice really took it out of me and despite a great nap and a good night of sleep I was tired this morning. Some coffee and breakfast helped enormously and despite feeling run down I had a really good weights and dry land workout today.

Weights10 minutes on stationary bike. Heart rate to 1453x(elbow exercises and shoulder exercises, wrist flexor, dumbbell pronation and supination with 17.5lbs, elbow flexion and extension with 27.5lbs, weighted External rotation with arm abducted using 12.5lb dumbells)10 minutes on stationary bike. Heart rate to 1453x(right leg, left leg extension going, 70,80,90lbs by round, right leg, left leg reverse leg raise 70,80,90 lbs by round, leg press using 200lbs on machine)10 minutes on stationary bike. Heart rate to max4x:30 on ski machine. 4 of use took it in turns to do 30 seconds afap on the ski machine working triceps

Pool setup LCM400 free with snorkel6x50 catchup on :50300 easy

My mum and dad are out visiting and I met my dad at the pool and the we went to Starbucks for a coffee after workout which was a really nice Father's Day treat.

I went to bed early last night and slept well but again was tired this morning. On the dive sprint 50s yesterday I tweaked my left shoulder by not getting my hand started locked. It would normally not be a big deal but I have a small tear in my left rotator cuff. This morning it hurt until after warmup.

i was :36s on the transition set of 50s. On the kick I was coming in on 1:40s. The 8x100s I was 1:08s except for #6 and #7 where I was 1:09 and 1:10. On the 200 back I was 2:32/33 which I was very happy with. I was really tired after practice.

It's been a really long week this week. I slept well last night but as has been the case most of the week, I did not have enough sleep. Today I am hosting our company stakeholders meeting with about 700 or so attendees; and th theme is Turn back time by sonny and Cher. I am playing Cher. Lucky me. Who does not want to see an English man in drag?

todays workout was pretty tough.

Pool setup scy

Warm up
400 Free with snorkel
6x50 catch-up on :50

Main sets
400 kick
3x(200 back on 2:30, 200 free at 2:15, 2x50 free on 32.5 or back on :35, 100 easy on 2mins)
200 easy
Drop a second 50s free starting at :40
200 easy
10x50 streamline back kick with fins on :40
4x50 dive sprint 50s free

Warm down
300 free breathing 3,5

I did ok on the 200s back going 2:19,2:16,2:16 by round, then consistently held 2:07s on the 200s free and then 30/31s on the free and 33/34 on the back. On the descending 50s I got to :30 which was ok. On the dive Sprints we'd were going on about 3mins and was :24,:25,:24,:25. I just don't feel that great on the 50s but the times were fine.